NAU women looking to extend season
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. – Needing a win and a Southern Utah loss against North Dakota on Saturday to earn a berth in the Big Sky Championship, the Northern Arizona women’s basketball team (8-20, 7-12 Big Sky) will close the regular season against Montana State (16-12, 10-9 Big Sky) at 12:05 p.m. Saturday in the Walkup Skydome.
The game will be televised live by FOX Sports Arizona.
NAU’s loss to Montana and Southern Utah’s win over Northern Colorado on Thursday gave the Thunderbirds a one-game advantage as the two teams battle for the final Big Sky Championship qualifying spot. To make the tournament the Lumberjacks will have to defeat Montana State on Saturday and have Southern Utah lose to North Dakota in their game in Cedar City at 7 p.m. If the two teams finished tied at 8-12, NAU would win the head-to-head tiebreaker and qualify as the No. 7 seed in the Big Sky tournament.
The game will be the final home contest for five Lumberjacks: Seniors Aubrey Davis, Paige Haynes, Amy Patton and Tyler Stephens-Jenkins and graduating junior Patricia Gortarez. The class will be honored prior to their final collegiate contest in Flagstaff, as the five look to not only end their home careers with a win but also keep the team’s postseason hopes alive.
“We just want to finish with a win,” Stephens-Jenkins said. “It would be good to go out with a win at the dome for the last time. We can’t think of it just as our last game; we have to win this game in order to keep playing.”
On the eve of what could be their final collegiate game, the senior class is focused completely on the task at hand and will wait to reminisce about their careers until after the season comes to a close.
“We need to play hard and play like it could be our last game,” said Patton, NAU’s all-time leader in points, rebounds, and field-goals made. “We have to go out there and put everything together to win. The main thing right now is the win and we can’t think about it being the end until we are done.”
Patton, Stephens-Jenkins, and Davis have each been four-year contributors for the NAU women’s basketball program. Patton’s list of accomplishments is extensive, as in addition to being NAU’s all-time leading scorer and rebounder, she is second all-time in steals, 3-pointers, and minutes played and likely will become only the second player in program history to be a four-time All-Big Sky selection. She is fifth in Big Sky history in career scoring and will go down among the greatest women’s basketball players at NAU.
Stephens-Jenkins also had a storied career as she ranks among NAU’s all-time leaders in 3-pointers and steals. She has been a starter for the majority of her career and tied the NAU single-game record when she connected on eight 3-pointers and scored a career-high 28 points earlier this season at Nebraska-Omaha. Like her classmates, she feels that their careers won’t be complete without giving themselves a chance to play in the postseason.
“This is the closest we’ve been to having a chance to make it,” she said. “As long as we take care of business tomorrow we can have faith that Southern Utah loses.”
Davis’ path to success was significantly more challenging after joinging NAU as a walk-on freshman. After seeing limited action through her first two seasons she blossomed into NAU’s starting center during her junior and senior seasons. She has been among the team’s most reliable scoring, rebounding, and shot blocking threats while ranking in the top of the Big Sky in field-goal percentage.
“I just wanted to play basketball and it was an honor for (former head coach Laurie Kelly) to let me walk on to this team,” Davis said. “To get where I have I never imagined would happen. We just don’t want it to end because it’s been an incredible four years playing here.”
Gortarez and Haynes both transferred to NAU and played two seasons with the Lumberjacks.
Gortarez, who transferred from Denver, has played 22 games this year with three starts. Haynes, a transfer from San Bernardino Valley College, played in 23 games last year and started all but one at the point guard position for the Lumberjacks this season. She has been among the top-five in the Big Sky for most of this season in assists, assist to turnover ratio, free-throw percentage, and minutes played while leading the NAU offense. She has also scored in double-figures in seven games this year and wants to extend what has been an enjoyable Lumberjack career with a win on Saturday.
“It has been a good two years; I have no regrets,” she said. “We can’t worry about it being our last game. We just have to win.”
That sentiment is strongly shared between the seniors and the team’s underclassmen. While they don’t have complete control over how their careers will end, the five graduates are confident that the future of the program will be strong after they move on.
“I think the future of this program is going to be really good,” Haynes said. “We started something good this year. With a new coach and all and it’s a new attitude and that will continue with the players that are coming back and the newcomers into the future.”